The Perth & Kinross council region in central Scotland is home to 80 primary and secondary schools. The local council takes pride in delivering quality education, providing each school with the best possible teaching and learning tools. In recent years, the council rolled out a comprehensive upskill and adoption program.
Until recently, most Perth & Kinross schools were using interactive whiteboards with less functionality and features, and in some cases, projectors that could be obstructed by shadows or poor lighting. A recent program driven by Harriet Benbow, Education Support Officer for Perth & Kinross Council, saw schools receive a Promethean ActivPanel to standardise regional technologies and elevate pedagogical standards.
To ensure that the new hardware was being used to its full potential, Perth & Kinross Council recognised an opportunity to further embed the technology into everyday routines by developing the skillsets of the people that use them the most – the teachers.
To take part in the ActivPanel Professional Learning competition, each assigned a ‘digital champion’ responsible for encouraging as many fellow teachers, headteachers and faculty members as possible to complete Promethean teacher training. The incentive for participating in the competition was two-fold – the teachers would improve their ActivPanel skillsets to become Promethean Certified Teachers, and the school with the highest participation rate would be rewarded with an additional new ActivPanel.
Competition triumph at Inchture Primary School
Lianne Laing, Primary Teacher, was appointed as the digital champion at Inchture; a primary school in the Carse of Gowrie. Despite previously being a technophobe, Mrs Liang volunteered to be responsible for getting the staff on board with the competition, knowing first-hand how valuable teacher training had been for her own development. “Getting to grips with the ActivPanel technology has made my life as a teaching professional much easier,” said Laing.
Inchture Primary School was eventually crowned the winner of the ActivPanel Professional Learning competition, thanks to the consistent enthusiasm from Mrs Liang and the rest of the teaching staff. Every staff member at Inchture had participated in the training, including those in the most senior roles. The awarded ActivPanel was installed in the school’s newly refurbished library to enhance the area and provide another quality teaching space for smaller groups or extra-curricular classes.
The impact of the ActivPanel and teacher training
Inchture Primary School teachers use the ActivPanel to its full potential to craft lesson content that is as inspiring as it is curriculum focused. Positioned traditionally at the front of the classrooms for all to see, the ActivPanel is used to teach various subjects.
Ms Laing makes use of the Split Screen feature to divide the ActivPanel display into several windows, while taking advantage of the multiple touch points to allow her students to work in different windows simultaneously. “Whether I’m working with multiple groups of students on different tasks, or putting groups against each other in a competitive scenario, the Split Screen feature enables the task and adds another dimension to otherwise straightforward lessons,” Mrs Laing said.
Enabling further gamification in the classroom, the hide and reveal element makes games and quizzes more engaging for the students. “These may seem like small tools, but they are each adding up to make a big difference for all the teaching staff in terms of ease of use,” said Liang.
In maths class especially, ActivInspire is regularly used to create games and tasks for the students to boost pupil engagement. “The ActivPanel is ideal for teaching early years and for presenting lots of things at the same time,” she said. “It is seamless to move from one thing to another, saving valuable time in lessons.”
Looking forward
The competition helped shine a light on the necessity of teacher training in improving lesson delivery, which hasn’t gone unnoticed at Inchture. Due to the success of the program, Inchture Primary School staff will continue with regular teacher training to ensure that every staff member gets the most out of the software available and teaching standards are kept at a high level. “The difference in lesson quality and teacher confidence from before the competition to now is remarkable,” said Harriet Benbow. “The feedback from practitioners is that, even when time was at a premium, it was well worth the time invested to improve the quality of lesson delivery across the board.”
Given the effectiveness of the initial training, the plan moving forward in the region is to continue partaking in Promethean Certified Trainer courses to get more familiar with ActivPanel essentials. This will keep teaching standards high for years to come by keeping up with best practice and panel updates. There are plans in place for teaching assistants to make use of the training to better support SEN pupils, so that everyone can benefit from Promethean technology.
Across the Perth & Kinross local authority, the ActivPanel Professional Learning competition has not only demonstrated the usefulness of Promethean technology in the classroom, but has also shown how consistent teacher training can take teaching standards to the next level. The evolution of teaching quality at Inchture Primary School is proof that commitment to honing their craft is essential for teachers to grow their confidence and, in turn, create memorable lessons for their students.